I went back into Huston's room after putting him to bed tonight to tell him to stop playing with his humidifier. He wanted me to get up in his bed for a minute and snuggle, so I did. He turned his head to face me and (speaking with the correct pronouns, which he never does) he said, "I love your eyes" as he touched my eyes. Then he continued to touch all the parts of my face and said "I love your nose and your chin and your 'that' (pointing to my eyebrow)." "I love your hair and your shirt and your head. I love your face."
Has there ever been a sweeter goodnight? My heart just melted. Moments like that make all the difficulties and trials of parenting just fade away. I am so blessed to be a mom. So blessed by my sweet Huston. It is more than I deserve. Thank you, Lord.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Arden – 6 months
Dear Arden,
Here’s what’s going on in your life at 6 months. (I can hardly believe you’re half a year old already!)
You are obsessed with tags. Your eyes bug out when you see a tag on one of your toys or blankets and your little hands reach up to grab it. You like to chew and suck on them. I wonder if you’ll still love tags when you’re older (like your Aunt Emily!).
You’ve started saying “na, na, na” and “da, da, da” this past week. It’s so adorable to hear your “talking.”
You got your first tooth the day after you turned 6 months old. It’s your bottom left front one. The one right beside it is coming it too.
At your 6 month checkup you weighed 16 pounds, 6 ounces (70th percentile) and you were 26 inches long (75th percentile).
So far you’ve eaten green beans, peas, and squash and you like all of them. You’re only eating at dinner time right now, because you haven’t been that interested in the morning or at lunch time.
You had your first sleepover with Huston at Mimi’s house on Friday, May 14th. You even slept through the night for her, which you’ve also been doing consistently for me for at least the past three weeks. It is so awesome to finally sleep through the night, that I don’t mind so much the 6 or 6:30 wake up time.
You are pretty much sitting up by yourself, although you tumble over easily enough. I always put your boppy behind you in case you fall.
Your long, side-swept bangs are getting the tiniest little kink at the tips. I wonder if your hair will be curly.
I love to watch you get up on all fours now and rock back and forth. You always manage to push yourself backwards, away from the toys you’re trying to reach. It shouldn’t be too long now before you start crawling!
Friday, May 14, 2010
Big Boy Arden
Arden has been getting on all fours this past week in a pre-crawling position and I’ve been commenting on how big she’s getting. Huston was beside me one day and said “She’s a big boy Arden!” Then yesterday he said, “She’s a big boy baby!” Isn’t that so darling? I guess we’ve never really had to use the phrase “big girl” before so he just made up his own version.
Monday, May 10, 2010
First Baseball Game
We got four tickets to the Ranger’s game from Clarke’s firm for Saturday night, so we decided to take Huston and Arden to their very first baseball game.
Huston was excited and impressed from outside of the stadium. He watches the Rangers games on TV with Clarke sometimes and is always interested in the score and in the guys “falling down.” He’s really into bricks lately (mostly how it’s bumpy when you drive over bricks) so he loved the bricks that we walked on to cross the parking lot and the bricks on the walls of the stadium.
He was also impressed by the huge escalators and rode one with Clarke just for fun.
As soon as we walked into the stadium, however, the Rangers had a huge play and the crowd went crazy. Huston immediately freaked out about all the noise and started screaming and crying.
Clarke took him to buy some ice cream in a hat, which he liked, but which he ate with both fingers plugging his ears to block out the crowd noise. That is, in fact, how he spent the majority of the game.
By the end of the game, Huston was enjoying himself. He walked up and down the steps (until the usher made him stop) and he played with the stadium seats. Arden was having a ball the whole time, just looking around and enjoying all the sights. She would stare down the people around us until they looked at her, and then break into the biggest smiles. The people around us all seemed amused by both Huston and Arden. We made it to the fifth inning, and then called it a night. The weather was perfect, the tickets were free, and both kids had fun (eventually). I’d call that a success.
(As a side note, as we arrived at our house after the game, Huston recited our entire address out of the blue – number and street name. I was quite impressed!)
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Arden at 5 months
This post is just a bit late, considering Arden turned 5 months on April 15th and is now closer to 6 months old. Things have been busy lately. :)
Darling, sweet Arden. You are such a little dear. You had your first taste of rice cereal on April 17th, just two days after you turned 5 months. You were definitely interested, but your tongue kept pushing the cereal back out of your mouth and onto your bib, where you licked it up.
You’ve gotten better since then and have been eating rice cereal around 7 in the morning and 6 in the evening ever since. It’s funny to watch you get excited when you see it coming. We still haven’t tried vegetables or fruit yet, but we will soon.
(Huston really wanted to help feed you, and Bear Bear wanted to watch you eat.)
You’ve been playing in your exersaucer a lot this month – you especially love to eat the star and the dragon head. You’ve become incredibly “grabby” and just want to grab everything around you and stick it in your mouth. The remote controls especially attract your attention and it’s become dangerous to hold you around the dinner table as you’ll grab for whatever food or utensil or drink is closest to you.
You are getting so strong and can push yourself up now with your arms completely straight. For the longest time you could only flip yourself onto your stomach, but now you’re able to roll both ways. You are finally able to sleep without being swaddled and have slept through the night a few times, but not consistently. I think the rice cereal is helping you stay full longer and I’ve let you cry it out a few times, too. I dropped your late night feeding, so now you nurse at 7 am, 11, 3 pm, and just before you go to sleep.
You have the sweetest round face and chubby cheeks, beautiful blue eyes, chunky thighs with delicious baby fat rolls, and chubby little arms. You’re such an easy going little thing and are almost never fussy unless you’re really tired or hungry. You adore your older brother, get so happy when Daddy comes home, and just love to be around people. You kick both legs when you’re super happy, whether you’re on your stomach or your back. People are always telling me how beautiful you are and of course I believe them. In fact, a nursery worker at church said you reminded her of Snow White, with your fair skin, dark hair, and blue eyes.
My own little Snow White Princess. You are too much for words. As I write this, you’re playing on your blanket beside me, making sweet baby noises and smiling. The ruffles on your little diaper cover are so precious, but not as precious as your chubby legs and tiny feet, and not nearly as precious as the smile you just gave me.
I love you, my little sweetie pie.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Easter in pictures
As promised, here are a few pictures from our Easter celebrations. For the first time Huston really enjoyed his Easter egg hunts. Last year he refused to pick up a single egg. I think it helped once he realized there was candy inside. His first egg hunt was at Mimi and Grandpa’s house on Saturday and he kept opening each egg to see and/or eat the gummies inside before moving on to the next one. We finally convinced him to put them all in his basket first and eat them later!
Huston had such a great time playing with his cousins (well, first cousins once removed, to be exact). He laughed at Blake and repeated everything he said, and bossed Valerie and Summer around while playing playdoh. He had a great time watching Mickey Mouse “Clock Cleaners” and a new Thomas video from his Easter basket. During brunch, he spied Granny’s plate of food first and decided to plop right down next to her on the couch and eat all of her food. He said “You want more chicken. You want break it. You want more grapes. You want more muffin.” Granny was sweet enough to feed him until his belly was full. Arden got passed around and enchanted everyone. She took a nap in Grandpa’s arms and looked adorable in her bunny outfit.
Arden even had an outfit change so she could model the cute little outfit she got in her Easter basket from Mimi and Grandpa.
On Sunday we went to my parent’s house for lunch. Huston had fun playing with his cousins, Cody and Bradley, and he enjoyed his second egg hunt. As he wandered around with his bag to collect eggs, he kept saying “The Easter Bunny came. The Easter Bunny came.” His inflection suggested a mix of amazement and confusion, like he wasn’t quite sure who the Easter Bunny was, but he was sure glad he came. At one point during the search for eggs, he looked at his bag and said “You have Easter bunnies in your box.”
Huston got some garden tools in his basket and immediately requested some dirt to dig in. Luckily my parents had a big wheelbarrow full of it.
Arden borrowed her cousin Kierstyn’s jumperoo toy and had a blast.
Great weather, great families, great reason to celebrate. Happy Easter!
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Happy Easter!
I’ll be posting a few pictures from our Easter celebrations soon, but before I get to that, I have to say that by far my favorite part of this Easter has been teaching Huston about Jesus’ resurrection. I bought him some “resurrection eggs” that tell the story of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. He loves playing with those eggs even more than I could have hoped and calls them his “resin eggs.” At first I thought it would all be way over his head, and I know that many parts of the story are pretty complex for him, but he can tell most of the story at least in a simple way. For example, he loves opening the first egg (which has a donkey inside) and saying “Jesus rode in on a donkey. They say ‘Hosanna to the King’.” The fourth egg has praying hands for when Jesus prayed in the garden and Huston will say “Jesus prayed to God” and clasp his hands together and squeeze his eyes shut. For the eggs that have a whip and a crown of thorns in them, Huston says “They hurt Jesus” and when we get to the egg with the cross in it, he says “Jesus died on the cross for he loves us.”
On Monday, the day after Easter, Huston was playing in the living room with the eggs and he called “Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!” I came into the living room to see him with the 12th egg cracked open (the empty one – signifying the empty tomb) and he exclaimed “Jesus is alive!” My heart just leapt with joy at his proclamation. It was one of my favorite moments in life ever. So sweet – so true – so simple – so profound – coming from the mouth of my little boy. Thank you, Jesus.
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